
1914, HEBCULES POWDER CO. 



1MPSH00TTNG 

.Points yoT rso vice and 
.Expert f XJDz6/i Hints on. 
Gun CkiD Organization 
ana a Model Constitu- 
tion and Bij-'Laws 

Harry S . V/aison 



Compliments of 

Hercules Powder Co. 

V^lrmn^roiT i Del . 



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Copyright 1 9 14 W 

Hercules Powder Co. 

Wilmindton, Del. 



©CI.A386561 



OCT (6 1914 



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TRAPSHOOTING 

A WORD TO THOSE WHO NEVER TRIED IT 



-^ rapshooting — as keen as tennis, as 
scientific as golf, as delicate as billiards 
— is fast becoming one of the leading 
sports in America. 

To the man or woman who has yet to 
make its acquaintance, it opens an unsuspected vista 
of interest and healthy fresh-air fun. The novice 
never dreams of the possibilities for enjoyment that 
lie before him until he has tried it. To those who 
have once fallen under its spell, it is irresistible. 

Those who know nothing of trapshooting will 
tell you it consists merely of hitting a flashing disc 
of clay with a load of shot from a scatter gun. Let 
the doubters try to hit that disc and fail, as they 
probably will at first, and the sport instantly be- 
comes marvelously elusive, fascinating, beset with 
all sorts of unsuspected mental problems and brim- 
ming with excitement. The best way to test the 
lure of this, the cleanest of all sports, is to try it 
once. That is usually enough to fasten forever your 
allegiance to the brotherhood of that fraternity of 
which the doxology is the death song of the clay 
pigeon: "Pull— Bang— Puff!" 

It is not difficult to put this to the test. No 
expensive paraphernalia is required, nor is initiation 



to the sport hedged about with embarrassing ritual. 
The nearest traps may be at the country club, set 
in the midst of rolling green lawns and close to a 
sumptuous club house, or the local trapshooting 
club may boast of nothing more extensive in the 
way of equipment than a small frame shack and 
an open field, but in either case your reception will 
be a warm one. There will be plenty of devotees 
glad to lend you a gun, and to proffer advice and 
instructions for demolishing the skimming clays. 
Once he has tasted the pleasures of what he con- 
siders the greatest sport on earth, your trapshooter 
feels a profound pity for all who have missed the 
joy of hearing the referee call "dead." And he is 
never happier than when teaching a novice the 
first simple rules of the game. There is nothing 
selfish about this sport; it is meant for everyone, 
men and women, boys and girls, the more the 
merrier. 

This is one of the things that makes trapshoot- 
ing the most generous sport in the world, where 
fellowship exists in the highest degree, where com- 
petition is keen but where defeat and a smile always 
go together and where an alibi cannot creep in. 
You hit them or you miss them, and there is nobody 
to blame but yourself. The conquered never be- 
grudges his victory to the conqueror in trapshoot- 
ing. The story is written clean and immutable 
on the score sheet and there is no appeal. 

As you read this, somewhere the guns are 
popping; somewhere an enthusiastic band that is 
anxious to welcome you into its ranks is gaining 
health and recreation from a pastime that you, too, 
could easily enjoy. Tired brains, forgetting worry, 
are taking on a new alertness; shaking nerves are 
growing steady; flaccid muscles getting strong, 









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stimulated by invigorating exercise on the firing 
line. 

Make up your mind now for a trial at the 
traps, and then don't put it off. Next Saturday 
will be a good time to start. Get out into the 
fresh air in the companionship of congenial sports- 
men and sportswomen. You will find them to 
your liking, these good fellows who are to be found 
at the gun club, rain or shine. And remember, 
you need only try it once to be convinced. 

TWO-EYE, OR BINOCULAR SHOOTING 

Let us take it for granted now that you have 
made the first step toward becoming a trapshooter, 
or are about to do so. Whether you are a beginner 
or one who has grown old (in years; trapshooters 
never really grow old) in pursuing the cleanest of 
sports, it is hoped that you will find something of 



interest and benefit in the following discussion of 
the more technical points. 

There are a few fundamentals which must be 
mastered if you w T ould become successful in pulver- 
izing clay pigeons. The first of these is two-eye, 
or binocular, shooting. Years ago it is probable 
that all shooters of the scatter gun closed one eye 
and squinted along the barrels at the object they 
wished to hit. Many fair shots still stick to the 
old-fashioned way of one-eye shooting, but you will 
find all the top-notchers shooting w T ith all the eyes 
they have and often wishing they had a few more. 

Experimentation has shown that to hit swiftly 
moving objects when the time in which one has to 
shoot is extremely short, the best results are ob- 
tained by pointing the gun in identically the same 
manner you would point your finger. Time is 
precious in trapshooting, and the person who stops 
to aim with one eye is sacrificing one of the 
essentials to success — swiftness in shooting. To 
achieve the highest degree of skill of which you 
are capable you must shoot with both eyes wide 
open. Why ? The answer is simple : 

Pick out some object 
across the room. With 
a swift movement, throw 



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up your arm and point your finger at it. Then 
close one eye and squint along the finger. Is it 
aiming directly at the object? It is. Now, take 
your hand down, and raising it again, close one 
eye and align your finger on the same object across 
the room. Note the difference between the time 
it took you to whip your finger with both eyes open 
directly on the object and that which was required 
for you to sight and get the alignment. 

A clay pigeon is a small object. With both 
eyes open it is none too easy to see it skimming 
out of a trap, especially if the light is poor. It is 
twice as hard with one eye closed. You do not close 
one eye when you play billiards. A baseball 
player does not look at his bat when he swings for 
a ball. You don't look at your racket when you 
play tennis. In golf you keep your eye on the ball. 
Then, why should you look at your gun when you 





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shoot ? It is the object you desire to hit which 
should claim your attention. 

THE SHOOTING POSITION 

With the necessity of two-eye shooting thor- 
oughly impressed on your mind, let us take up the 
subject of shooting positions. A golf instructor 
will teach the details of playing every shot except 
the putt. When it comes to this feature, he will 
say, "Putt in the way that comes easiest, that is 
most natural to you." And so in trapshooting, 
stand in the way that comes most natural. For 
right-handed persons this will be with the left 
foot slightly forward and most of the weight 
on it. Your position must not be strained. You 
must be poised to swing easily from the hips in 
order to follow swiftly and surely the various 
angles at which the clay birds are thrown from 
the traps. 



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THE "LEAD" AND THE "SWING" 

This matter of angling birds brings us to one 
of the most important subjects we shall have to 
treat: the "lead," or that place at which you must 
point your gun so that the shot will meet targets 
flying away from you at an angle. Lead is one 
of the most discussed questions in trapshooting. 
It means different things to different shooters. 
One may tell you he led a target two feet and broke 
it, and another may declare he led an exactly similar 
target not at all and smashed it equally well. The 
significance of these varying opinions is that one 
shooter swings his gun faster than the other and 
that in the case of the shooter who held right on 
the nose of the target, his gun swung so rapidly 
that between the inception of the impulse that 
pulled the trigger and the time when the shot actual- 
ly left the barrel, the gun was carried far enough 
ahead to break the target. The other man, swing- 
ing more slowly, had to use a greater lead because 
if his brain had registered the command to pull the 
trigger at a time when the 
gun was pointing directly 
at the mark, the target 
would have passed out of 
the range of the pattern 
by the time the shot left 
the muzzle. 

If you shoot correctly, 
lead is governed by the 
rate at which you swing, 
and the distance you will 
have to lead a quartering 
bird will be determined 
by experience. It would 



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seem obvious that it is desirable to learn to swing 
fast enough so that if you decide to pull the trigger 
when you are pointing right at the bird, the im- 
perceptible time which elapses between your 
decision and the action of pulling the trigger will 
allow the gun to swing ahead the correct distance. 
This is probably what happens in the case of those 
shooters who tell you they never lead quartering 
targets. They swing so fast that they do not have 
to consider the lead question at all. 

As the speed of the swing is slackened, the 
lead must be lengthened until we come to that 
class of shooters who simply point at a spot ahead 
of the target and pull the trigger without any swing 
at all, or who swing way past and then stop and 
pull. Stopping the swing is the most common 
fault of novice shooters and many old-timers are 
not exempt. Remember to keep your gun mov- 
ing until you see the target transformed to a cloud 
of dust on the sky. And if you have a tendency 
to stop swinging, keep on even after this; it cul- 
tivates the habit. 

The quartering bird is a hard proposition, but 
to some shooters the straightaway is hardly less 
difficult. Of course, as it goes directly away from 
the traps, the straightaway gets off faster and allows 
the shooter less time. The tendency of the be- 
ginner to stop his swing is even greater on straight- 
aways than on quartering birds and as a result he 
undershoots if he fires before the bird has reached 
the top of its rise, and overshoots if he fires after 
the target has commenced to descend. He lifts 
his gun, stops it and pulls the trigger. The target, 
not stopping, climbs above or drops below his 
pattern with annoying persistency. You must 
learn to shoot before the clay bird has reached the 



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top of its rise. Follow it by raising the gun as it 
rises and keep on raising it as you pull the trigger. 

CHOOSING THE GUN 

The man or woman who can stand easily, 
who shoots with both eyes open, who will swing 
smoothly and quickly with angling birds, who will 
"lift" as smoothly on straightaways, who will pull 
the trigger firmly and not with a jerk, needs only a 
gun that fits to have within grasp a fair measure 
of success. 

A twelve gauge, full choke gun, weighing from 
l}/2 to 8 pounds, with 30- or 32-inch barrels and 
with a trigger pull of from 4 to 4J^ pounds is recom- 
mended for trap work. While lighter guns are 
easier for some people to handle, they are apt to 
give too much recoil with the regular trap load of 
§4 grains of dense powder, or 3 drams of bulk 
powder, and 1% ounces of shot. 




Unless they buy a gun especially designed for 
trapshooting, and it is not wise to do this until sure 
of the lines on which it should be built, most persons 
start out with a gun that has too much "drop" in 
the stock. To determine the drop, lay your gun 
on a table so that the top of the barrels rests flat 
against it. Then measure the distance between 
the surface of the table and the comb (that part of 
the stock on which your cheek rests when the gun 
is at the shoulder) and also between the table and 
the heel (the top part of the stock at the butt) . If 
your gun were absolutely "straight/' both comb and 
heel would touch the table with your gun in this posi- 
tion. As a matter of fact, most guns built for field 
shooting have a drop of from 2 to 2 Y2 inches at the 
comb and from 3 to 3^ inches at the heel. A trap 
gun should be straighter than this. A drop of from 
1% to l^/g inches at the comb and from 2 to 2 ^ 
inches at the heel will fit the average man or woman. 



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As a general rule, a person with a thin face 
requires a thicker stock than a full-faced person. 
If your gun fits you perfectly, when you throw it to 
your shoulder and drop your cheek against the 
comb you will find that you are looking straight 
down the rib to the sight. Obviously, the thick- 
ness of the stock and the proportions of the shooter's 
face are factors which enter into this. Throw the 
gun to your shoulder and point at some near object 
with both eyes open, then close your left eye (if 
you are right-handed) and if the gun is aligned 
correctly it probably fits you in this respect. 

The length of the stock is another important 
consideration. Generally speaking, a person with 
long arms needs a longer stock than one with short 
arms. It is better to buy a gun that is too long 
than one that is too short because it is easier to 
have the stock cut down than to have it lengthened. 
A fairly satisfactory way of determining whether 
a gun is the correct length for you is by holding it 
to your shoulder with the finger on the trigger, 
then let the butt of the gun fall into the crotch of 
your arm at the elbow 
with the barrels pointing 
up. If you can do this 




14 



without changing the position of your finger or of 
your hand on the grip, you can be fairly certain 
that the stock is not too long for you. 

We hear much talk about the balance of a 
gun or the way it "handles." An old shooter will 
take your gun, throw it to his shoulder and perhaps 
tell you that it "handles like a club." It is usually 
difficult to get him to explain any more fully than 
this and you may be puzzled to determine just 
what is the matter. A gun is balanced right for 
you when its center of weight comes about half way 
between your two hands when holding it at the 
shoulder. Find the central point between your 
hands and if at that point the gun will balance 
across your finger, it is balanced right for you. It 
should be clear that in this case the weight of the 
gun will be divided equally between your two hands 
when aiming. If a gun is too heavy at the muzzle it 
is hard to swing it quickly enough and it has a 
tendency to make you shoot low and behind. A 
gun that is too light at the muzzle has just the oppo- 
site effect on your shooting. 

CHOOSING THE POWDER 

The choice of the powder to use in trapshoot- 
ing is as important as the choice of a gun. The 
qualities to be sought for are uniformity of strength 
and quickness, good velocities, even patterns and 
light recoil. A powder that is variable will throw 
you out on your "leads" and a powder that does not 
give sufficient velocities will tell against you, par- 
ticularly when shooting in a wind. The value of 
a light recoil will be easily appreciated. 

The powders which are recommended on 
account of the above qualifications are Infallible 
and E. C. The former is a "dense" powder, which 







means that to get a given result it takes less of it 
than to get the same result with black powder or a 
"bulk" smokeless powder like E. C. Both these 
powders are equally good for trap work, but for 
some classes of shooting Infallible has the advan- 
tage because it is waterproof. 

The proper loads to use at the traps are 24 
grains of Infallible or three drams of E. C. smoke- 
less shotgun powders, with 1J^ ounces of No. 7^ 
chilled shot. Any of the standard makes of 
loaded shells are good, and the above loads can be 
secured in all of them. It is always well to specify 
the kind of shell and the kind of powder when buy- 
ing ammunition. 



THE FINER POINTS 

are the fundamentals but 



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These are the fundamentals but there 
deeper problems in trapshooting that have in many 
instances escaped even old devotees of the game. 










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The "Shooting Groove" is an expression some 
shooter once coined and it is — well, in effect it is 
the thing which wins championships, that hangs up 
long run records and which differentiates a 95% 
shooter from a 75% one. It sometimes changes 
a 75% shooter to a 95% one for a short time. 
When you get into this shooting groove you know 
it by a feeling of positive certainty that you are 
going to break target after target as they whiz 
away from the trap house. You know that you 
are going to hit them and keep on hitting them, 
that you have forgotten how to miss, that the birds 
are so close and so easy that all you have to do is 
to point in their general direction and pull the 
trigger. 



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When a shooter is in this shooting groove it 
means that his bodily machinery is working smoothly, 
that his eye is true, and that his brain is telegraphing 
through swiftly operating nerves to muscles that are 
responding accurately and instantly. It means that 
he has confidence that knows no wavering, and that 
while he may at times seem almost careless, so precise 
are the directions of his mind and so perfect is the 
execution of his muscles that he instinctively points 
his gun at the correct spot every time. 

This wonderful can't-miss feeling is the supreme 
reward which the goddess deputized by Diana to 
preside over the destinies of huntsmen who follow 
the fast-flying blue rocks, bestows on her faithful 
devotees. 






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You have all known it sometime — you who 
are regulars at the "score." You will all know it 
sometime — you who are serving your novitiate at 
the traps. And when you get into this shooting 
groove, when you begin to feel the confidence, the 
ease and the certainty that bird after bird will dis- 
appear before your gun; when eye and brain and 
trigger finger are working like a machine well oiled 
with everything in tune, you will know to a supreme 
degree why trapshooting is the greatest sport in the 
world. It may last only for a run of 25, or it may 
carry you into the hundreds without a miss, but in 
either case it will leave you with a zest for the game 
that nothing can balk. The memory of it will 
obliterate the disappointment occasioned by many 
poor scores. 

CONCENTRATION 

This groove, to most trap shots, is simply the 
feel that they are "right" but in the analysis of it 
and its application to your own individual case, 
there is an interesting study which may aid you 
greatly to stay in it once you have discovered it. 
For one thing, you may be pretty sure that it will 
take concentration to keep the goose eggs out of 
your score. Some of the old-timers look as if they 
were shooting with a happy abandon that requires 
only about half their attention. But you may be 
sure that in spite of appearances they are attending 
strictly to business. In trapshooting, one of the 
most important acquirements is the ability to 
exclude from your mind everything except the de- 
termination to break the next target. Go after 
every bird as though it were the only one you were 
going to shoot at and as though your only chance 
for a good score lay in breaking that disc. 



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To give an idea of how important concentra- 
tion is and how easily it is upset: 

It was in the final string of a shoot-off for the 
clay bird championship of one of the Mid- Western 
states. Two contestants had tied with 95 out of 
100 birds. Up to the 15th bird in the shoot-off, 
both men had broken every target. But at that 
moment an unexpected thing happened. A tame, 
live pigeon, flying over the grounds and apparently 
not in the least frightened by the noise, alighted on 
top of the trap house. The man whose turn it was 
to shoot at this moment, was just about to call 
"pull" when the bird flapped down into his range 
of vision. Attendants drove the bird away but 
by that time the concentration of the shooter who 
had been delayed was so disturbed that he missed 
not only the next target, but five in succession 
thereafter. Of course, ne lost the match. He had 
been shaken out of the shooting groove by a little 



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annoyance. If it had not been for the trifling 
interference of the pigeon he would probably have 
held on to the end with a good chance for the 
championship. 

One of the best amateur shots in the East 
once said he shot through a hundred bird match 
to decide a club championship without taking his 
eye from an apple core lying in front of the plat- 
form except when it was his turn to shoot. He 
did not see one target broken or missed save those 
he himself shot at and he declared that not one 
thought except to look at the apple core entered his 
head between turns for him to shoot. This in- 
stance is not cited in order to prove the efficiency 
of apple cores in winning matches but it illustrates 
the sort of concentration that wins at the traps. 

You have probably noticed that quite often 
w T hen one man in a squad misses, the other members 
will follow suit although they had been consistently 
breaking everything before. This is simply on 
account of the mental reaction on the other 

shooters occasioned by 
the first man's miss. 
Pay no attention to your 




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competitor's lost birds unless you want to duplicate 
his misses. 

FLINCHING 

The bane of some trapshooters' existence is 
what is known as flinching. Shooters who can 
consistently point their guns at targets and pull the 
trigger just when they want to are sure shots. But 
it is the inability to perform this act of pulling the 
trigger at the right moment that keeps down the 
scores of many who would otherwise be very ex- 
cellent performers. This is called flinching. One 
of the surest ways to get into the flinching habit is 
to shoot a load of powder that gives a heavy kick 
or recoil. Another good way is to shoot a gun not 
adapted to you, or to seize the grip of your gun 
too tightly. You can't pull the trigger evenly and 
smoothly if you grip your gun like a vise. 












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At times, some of the oldest and best shots fall 
prey temporarily to this trapshooters' disease. You 
can readily spot a flincher on the firing line. The 
muzzle of his gun will give a spasmodic jerk every 
now and then as he fires and the time in which he 
shoots will be irregular. Usually the jerk of the 
gun is downward. Then again, flinching will be 
manifested by a jerky stab instead of a quick, 
smooth swing at the target. Much has been said 
about cures for flinching, but the fact that several 
of the best shots in the country are victims of the 
habit is pretty good evidence that there is no remedy 
which is certain. 

Many people have cured themselves of flinch- 
ing, however, by shooting lighter loads and by 
changing the measurements of their guns. If there 
is any chance that your stock is too long, try remov- 
ing the butt plate, or if it seems too short, add a 
recoil pad. If your grip does not fit the hand 




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comfortably, wind it with tape if it is too small and 
have the local gunsmith rub it down if it seems too 
large. If this does not cure you, stop shooting for 
a while and that may break the habit. If every- 
thing fails, remember the fellows who break over 
90% in spite of flinching and you will see that there 
is no reason to give up hope. 

PHYSICAL CONDITION 

In conclusion, just a word about physical con- 
dition. We have characterized trapshooting as the 
cleanest sport — cleanest in the fellowship it pro- 
motes, in the manly attitude it encourages and in 
the gentlemanly acceptance of defeat or victory, 
departure from which is seldom seen. In addition 
to this, it encourages clean living, because to shoot 
well, to have nerves working as finely as they must 
work if you wish to achieve success, you must keep 
in good training. This demands abstinence from 







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all habits that clog the nerve centers and that pre- 
vent perfect co-ordination between eye, brain and 
trigger finger. 

Success at the traps, as at most everything, is 
relative. Some of us long to excel at sports and 
are not satisfied unless we are among the top- 
notchers. Others find more pleasure in the social 
side of their pastimes than in the development of 
highly specialized skill. Trapshooting appeals 
strongly to both these classes. While we have 
devoted a large part of this article to discussion of 
the technical side of trapshooting, we should be 
sorry to convey the idea that one must be very 
"scientific" to enjoy this sport. Nothing could be 
farther from the truth. Whether you want to be- 
come an expert or merely like to "bang away" and 
get your share, you will find that time spent at the 
gun club will pay you well in the kind of fun that 
makes life worth while. 




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SAFETY FIRST 

DON'T load your gun except when on the 
firing line. 

DON'T walk from No. 5 to No. 1 position 
with your gun loaded. 

DON'T throw a gun to your shoulder without 
first breaking it to make sure it is unloaded, except 
when on the firing line. 

DON'T point a gun at anyone even though 
you know it is unloaded. 

DON'T annoy the other members of your squad 
by explaining why you missed. 

DON'T speak to a man who is about to shoot. 

DON'T walk up to a man who is about to 
shoot, in changing your position. 

DON'T leave your position till the last man 
has fired his final shot. 

DON'T dispute the referee's decision. 

DON'T whisper "pull." Call it in a strong 
voice. 

DON'T get angry if the puller balks you. 
He's doing his best and you'll miss if you worry. 

DON'T plead ignorance as excuse for a mis- 
take. Learn the Interstate Rules for Trapshooting. 
Copies may be secured from the Hercules Powder Co. 



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HINTS ON TRAPSHOOTING CLUB ORGANIZATION 

If you can get together twenty-five people who will each pay 
dues of one dollar a year you can start a trapshooting club. If your 
local dealers will extend credit, you can get started for less, provided 
in both cases, that your ground rental is light, and that you and the 
other members do the work of installing equipment, etc. 

You will need one or two traps which cost in the cheaper grades 
from $4.50 to $6.50 each, F. O. B. factory; and a couple of thousand 
targets, prices varying from $4.50 per thousand at some Eastern 
points to $9.00 per thousand at some places in the far West, depend- 
ing on the cost of delivery from the factory. 

It will be seen from these figures that if you buy targets at the 
bottom price and charge a cent apiece for them, the club will make a 
profit of $5.50 a thousand, while if you have to pay the top price 
you can make $6.00 profit by charging a cent and a half apiece, or, 
15 cents for ten. It is not wise to charge for targets more than 
enough to net the club from $5.00 to $6.00 per thousand to cover 
the expense of handling and trapping. 

So much for what it is possible to do. Obviously, it is not 
advisable to start a club on such a narrow margin unless it is impos- 
sible to raise a larger amount, but it is better to start in too modest 
than in too pretentious a way. 

In most cases the first step tov/ards organizing a club should be 
to gain the support of local dealers in guns and ammunition, news- 
papers, and the local sportsmen. It is easy to convince progressive 
dealers that the club will help their gun and ammunition business 
and they are usually glad to help get it started. Don't play any 
favorites, you will need the good- will of all the dealers and it is best 
to divide the club's patronage between them. 

The newspapers will support you both because a live trapshoot- 
ing club will make news for them and because it will advertise your 
town. 

Local sportsmen should welcome a plan that will allow them 
to shoot and keep in practice all the year round, but remember that 
success will largely depend upon your being able to interest and 



27 



hold the interest of men and women who are not at present shooters. 

Find out from your dealers just what the equipment you can 
afford will cost delivered and be prepared to answer all questions. 
When you have done this and gained the support of dealers, press, 
and as many prospective members as possible, call a meeting. Be 
sure to hold it in a convenient place. It is not necessary to complete 
the organization of the club at the first meeting and often it is unad- 
visable. What you want is discussion by everyone in order to create 
enthusiasm. If the first meeting accomplishes this, the second one 
will probably bring out a larger number. 

When the time is ripe elect officers and adopt a constitution 
and by-laws. For your guidance a form of constitution and by-laws 
is appended which you can easily alter, if necessary, to fit your 
requirements. 

Of course, the officers should be men whose names will gain 
respect for the club. Great care must be taken in selecting a secre- 
tary, for most of the detail will be handled by him and he must be 
a worker. 

Between m.eetings look for a suitable location for the club 
grounds. Above all, the grounds should be easily accessible. You 
don't want a location that will be hard to reach without an auto- 
mobile. Next in importance is to secure a good background. Trees 
or buildings in the line of flight of the 
targets make them hard to see and keep 
down the scores. The ideal place 







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DIAGRAM 1 

DIAGRAM I. 

AUTOMATIC TRAP 

-Firing Points 1 to 5, 
spaced three to five 
yards apart. 



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IS 

5 3 * 

DIAGRAM II 

DIAGRAM II. 

SERGEANT SYSTEM 

F* — Firing Points 1 to 
5, spaced three to 
five yards apart. 

T* — Traps, spaced four 
feet apart. 






DIAGRAM III 

DIAGRAM HI. 

DISTANCE HANDICAPS 

F* — Firing Points 1 
to 5, spaced 
nine feet apart 
at 16 yards. 

T*— Trap. 



T*— Trap. 

is a level field with no obstructions in the background so that 
targets will be seen against the sky during their whole flight. In 
order to make shooting safe there should be no buildings within 
three hundred yards of the firing line in the direction of fire. 
The traps should be laid out so that the shooters will face about 
northeast. This will allow you to shoot late in the afternoon without 
looking into the sun, and is also a good layout for morning shooting. 

In referring to equipment, our opening paragraphs mention 
only that which is suited to small clubs of moderate means. Three 
of the cheaper traps, before mentioned, set Sergeant System (see 
diagram II) will give a fair sized club a satisfactory outfit. An 
automatic trap is necessary for clubs that want to throw a maximum 
number of targets. 

One manufacturer sells these to gun clubs for $35.00, or $40.00 
with an attachment for throwing double targets; prices are F. O. B. 
factory. Another concern rents traps for throwing its targets for 
$30.00 the first year and $10.00 a year thereafter, with a rebate of 
$15.00 when the trap is returned. This price is reduced when two 
or more traps are rented. 

The diagrams published herewith will give a general idea as to 
how the field should, be laid out and complete instructions will be 
furnished by the manufacturers from whom you buy your traps. 



Don't be in a hurry to build a club house unless your club is 
prosperous. A shack that will be ample for a small club can be 
erected for about $100.00 while, of course, there is no limit to the 
amount you can put into an attractive building if your means 
allow you to build one. 

A WORD OF WARNING 

Don't get discouraged because someone started a club in your 
locality which failed. Most failures of this kind would have been 
avoided had the officers of the club been warned as follows: 

Don't run the club according to the ideas of the best shots only, 
to the discouragement of the beginners. Don't encourage members 
to overshoot. It is too expensive and if allowed it will soon kill 
enthusiasm. Never have more than 50 targets in the regular events 
at club shoots. Twenty-five would be better; say two ten-bird 
events and one five. 

Offer prizes* as often as possible at club shoots. They help 
keep up the interest and they need not be more expensive than a box 
of shells. If you have enough members to make it feasible, divide 
them into classes according to their ability and from time to time 
offer prizes for the high man in each class. Get up team races with 
neighboring clubs. A good way to run these is to allow all members 
from each club to shoot, the ten highest from each club to constitute 
the team and their scores to be counted. 

Get a couple of intelligent boys to act as trappers and pay them 
for their work. When you hold regular tournaments, pay your 
scorers and referees. Don't expect to get satisfactory service from 
unpaid help. 

The above remarks are founded on a wide and varied experi- 
ence with gun clubs all over the United States. We believe that 
attention to the advice as well as to the warnings will enable you to 
avoid most of the mistakes which have been made by others in the 
past. In conclusion, we want to assure you that representatives of 
the Hercules Powder Company, who are experienced in all matters 



* Hercules Powder Company is glad to donate prizes to live gun clubs. 



pertaining to trapshooting and club organization, will be glad to aid 
you whenever it is possible. We solicit correspondence with those 
that contemplate starting trapshooting clubs and shall always be 
glad to give advice and offer suggestions upon request, 

MODEL CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS 



NAME 

This club shall be called Trapshooting 

Club. 

PURPOSE 

It shall be the purpose of this club to promote trapshooting, 

good fellowship, and sane protection of fish and game. 

MEMBERSHIP 
Men and women who are in sympathy with the purposes 
outlined above are eligible to membership. 

OFFICERS 

The active members of the Trapshooting 

Club shall elect the following officers by ballot at the annual meeting 

which shall be held each year: President, 

Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and Field Captain. 

OFFICERS" DUTIES 

The President shall preside at all meetings, call special meetings 
and generally supervise the club's activities. 

The Vice-President shall perform all the duties of the President 
in the latter' s absence. 

It shall be the duty of the Secretary to keep all scores and 
records of the club in proper form and attend to all clerical work. 

The Treasurer shall take charge of all moneys belonging to the 
club and shall be responsible for their safe keeping. He shall pay 
all bills which have been approved by the President and Secretary. 
It shall also be his duty to collect dues from members. 

The Field Captain shall have charge of the club grounds and 
all shooting shall be under his supervision. 



31 



MEETINGS 
The dates of meetings shall be decided by members of the club 
at the annual meeting of the club. Special meetings shall be held 
at the call of the President. The President shall always call a 
special meeting when any three members request him to do so in 
writing. It shall take members to constitute a quorum. 

ELECTION OF MEMBERS 
Members shall be elected by a ballot and the names of those 
proposed for membership shall be submitted to the club's Secretary 
in writing at regular club meetings. The proposer and seconder 
shall sign applications for membership. 

DUES 

The annual dues for membership shall be payable 

to the Treasurer in advance. 

BY-LAWS 

1. Targets shall be charged for at the rate of cents each, 

except that if the club holds any regular tournaments, this price 
may be increased at the discretion of the officers. 

2. The Interstate Rules* shall govern in the regular events at 
all club shoots. 

3. No more than 50 (25 is preferable) targets shall be included 
in the program of regular club shoots. 

4. At the regular club shoots there shall be no sweepstakes or 
shooting for money among the members and at all times members 
who wish to do so shall be allowed to shoot for targets only. 

5. Members who wish to shoot on days other than those regu- 
larly set apart by the club, shall be responsible for the hire of trap- 
pers and any other expenses incurred. 

6. By a majority vote of members the above articles may be 
amended at any regular meeting when a quorum is present, provided 
a written notice of the proposed change shall have been given to all 
members 30 days before the meeting at which the amendment is 
put to vote. 



* The Hercules Powder Company will gladly supply you with copies of 
the Interstate Rules on request. 




3/VpHIC CO..H.Y. 



.. I I 



llliHWlSlll ° F C0NGRESS 

020 237 112 7 



